Dish vs. DirectTV

[boomerang]

Originally posted by: lykaon78
I didn't bother to read the above... but I've had Dish for a 3 months or so and its fine. No HD locals until Feb 2009 they're telling me. This really pisses me off because I have to run a cable from my basebment to a pair of rabbit ears outside to HD locals. No reception problems and no hardware issues for me yet. I also think the start costs for Dish are cheaper than Direct TV.

I'm not trying to minimize your complaint, but were you aware that HD locals OTA is the best signal you can get? It's an uncompressed signal. YMMV, in that it takes the right antenna to get a premium signal. In addition, many local broadcasters have additional programming that can only be picked up with an OTA antenna. For example, let's assume you get channel 7 in your area. OTA digital may give you 7, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, etc.

I'm getting my locals through my Sat, but am considering throwing up an antenna to see what I can get. I'm in a deep fringe area which is why I went with Sat service to begin with. My OTA was horrible. But my understanding is that the digital signal is so much better that I may be able to get a great signal now.

 

[shopbruin]

We are getting DirectTv solely because they have NFL Sunday Ticket.

If the NFL and cable companies didn't constantly squabble over crazy things and DirectTV didn't have exclusive rights over Sunday Ticket for the next what, 4 years, we probably would have just gone with regular cable.

 

[PatrickBateman]

I was at a sports bar last Sunday who had the NFL package for DirectTV. A rainstorm rolled through and they lost signal....we went to 2 other bars in town all with DTV and none had the signal. We finally found a bar with comcast to watch the Dallas/Wash game.

 

[kalrith]

I went with DirecTV. They have my locals in HD, and Dish doesn't, but this is totally dependent on your location. Also, I love the DirecTV Sports Pack. It gets channels that are only present in Dish's top-tier package, and I get every single FSN channel which I don't think is even possible with Dish. Last weekend I watched the OU game on FSN SW even though my area falls under FSN MW.

 

[gizbug]

Currently use ATT U-Verse.
Would like to make the switch to DISH. Few questions

1) Best place to sign up is directly at dish's website? Or are there other sites that offer better deals?

2) This TurboHD. Is this a package all by itself? Or do I need a programing package (ie. America's Top 200, etc)? I have 3 tv's. Only 1 is HD. The other two are standard tv's. Would this elimiate the option of only getting a turbohd package? What is most common by the users on here for packages?

 

[thedarkwolf]

Originally posted by: gizbug
Currently use ATT U-Verse.
Would like to make the switch to DISH. Few questions

1) Best place to sign up is directly at dish's website? Or are there other sites that offer better deals?

2) This TurboHD. Is this a package all by itself? Or do I need a programing package (ie. America's Top 200, etc)? I have 3 tv's. Only 1 is HD. The other two are standard tv's. Would this elimiate the option of only getting a turbohd package? What is most common by the users on here for packages?

HD + Top # packages
Wish they would let you add the Gold Hd pack to one of the lower Top # packages. The Gold only adds one HD channel I care about but National Geographic is a biggie to me. Really hate to pay for 250 standard Def channels just to get that one extra HD channel when 3/4s of the 250 channels are crap I could care less about.

Neither of the Sat guys offer locals in HD here yet and I can't get crap with an antenna so I'm sticking with Comsuck for awhile longer.

 

[indamixx99]

Originally posted by: sactoking

Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor

DirecTV has locals in HD. Dish does not (at least not where I live).
Incorrect. I live in Sacramento too and I get them all

Alas, incorrect. I don't live in Sacramento. Dish does NOT carry locals for me in HD, and I can't get them from an off-air antenna either.

Where in the world do you live anyways? Of course you're not gonna get locals if you live in a rural market.

 

[CFster]

DirecTV = MPEG4, Dish = MPEG2

DirecTV > Dish

 

[gizbug]

Having to pay for receivers with DirecTV is an eyesore.

 

[torpid]

Originally posted by: CFster
DirecTV = MPEG4, Dish = MPEG2

DirecTV > Dish

Some areas have MPEG4 for Dish, and they are expanding to more and more.

 

[tk149]

Originally posted by: boomerang
I'm not trying to minimize your complaint, but were you aware that HD locals OTA is the best signal you can get? It's an uncompressed signal. YMMV, in that it takes the right antenna to get a premium signal. In addition, many local broadcasters have additional programming that can only be picked up with an OTA antenna. For example, let's assume you get channel 7 in your area. OTA digital may give you 7, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, etc.

I'm getting my locals through my Sat, but am considering throwing up an antenna to see what I can get. I'm in a deep fringe area which is why I went with Sat service to begin with. My OTA was horrible. But my understanding is that the digital signal is so much better that I may be able to get a great signal now.

Actually, YMMV. I believe that my local OTA HD channels are compressed.

 

[torpid]

Originally posted by: tk149

Originally posted by: boomerang
I'm not trying to minimize your complaint, but were you aware that HD locals OTA is the best signal you can get? It's an uncompressed signal. YMMV, in that it takes the right antenna to get a premium signal. In addition, many local broadcasters have additional programming that can only be picked up with an OTA antenna. For example, let's assume you get channel 7 in your area. OTA digital may give you 7, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, etc.

I'm getting my locals through my Sat, but am considering throwing up an antenna to see what I can get. I'm in a deep fringe area which is why I went with Sat service to begin with. My OTA was horrible. But my understanding is that the digital signal is so much better that I may be able to get a great signal now.

Actually, YMMV. I believe that my local OTA HD channels are compressed.

I believe most are compressed, if not all. Satellite and cable compress even further, though.

 

[sourceninja]

I have dish network. I have gone though 3 HD DVR boxes in 2 years. The first one went due to my fault I put it in our entertainment center and being in a slot only twice the size of the unit (with an open front and back end) caused it to overheat and die according to support. So I got a new box and put it on top of the entertainment center. Now it is wide open. The second one died 6 months later. My wife thinks it was because the cat sat on it while it was recording 2 HD shows. So the final solution was to put it under the entertainment center in a very large space (about 4 times the size of the box) with a glass front and slotted back so the cat can't sit on it.

It is about to die now. If it records an HD show then the second TV is corrupted until you reboot the unit. The thing also puts out heat like nothing else. I could cook on the outside of the case even when it is not in any enclosure.

 

[kalrith]

Originally posted by: sourceninja
I have dish network. I have gone though 3 HD DVR boxes in 2 years. The first one went due to my fault I put it in our entertainment center and being in a slot only twice the size of the unit (with an open front and back end) caused it to overheat and die according to support. So I got a new box and put it on top of the entertainment center. Now it is wide open. The second one died 6 months later. My wife thinks it was because the cat sat on it while it was recording 2 HD shows. So the final solution was to put it under the entertainment center in a very large space (about 4 times the size of the box) with a glass front and slotted back so the cat can't sit on it.

It is about to die now. If it records an HD show then the second TV is corrupted until you reboot the unit. The thing also puts out heat like nothing else. I could cook on the outside of the case even when it is not in any enclosure.

It's interesting that you say that. I thought their HD DVRs might be more reliable than SD DVRs. I had Dish SD for 3 years and had 3 DVRs fail in that time period. I've had one DirecTV DVR for 10 months and another one for 5 months. I haven't had major issues with either one and have had nothing close to an all-out failure.

 

[sourceninja]

My dish network contract is up. I'm thinking of moving to directTV. Mostly due to them having SpikeHD and I'm sick of mailing dish network boxes back.

 

[uli2000]

Originally posted by: CFster
DirecTV = MPEG4, Dish = MPEG2

DirecTV > Dish

Most all of dish's HD is now mpeg4. They are currently having customers w/ old mpeg2 only hd equipment change to mpeg4 capable equipment then the will go all mpeg4 for hd. Im not sure about plans to change SD programing over to mpeg4 at this time.